


Boys Don't Cry

by SlySilver



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: 5 times Eli cried +1 time Demetri does, Binary Boyfriends, Fluff, Kinda?, M/M, Non Binary Eli, Other, Pre-Relationship, Very introspective Eli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29230092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlySilver/pseuds/SlySilver
Summary: 5 Times Eli Cried +1 Time Demetri does
Relationships: Demetri & Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Demetri/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Boys Don't Cry

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I am here to write fluff and non binary Eli. Also I don't know why, but I absolutely headcanon that Eli is super emotional and cries a lot.

1\. Dysphoria

Eli has always had anxiety. They are nervous around people, uncomfortable with new situations, and absolutely cannot stand uncertainty. Which is why they were currently panicking. They’d decided to try to explain to Demetri their current gender dilema, in hopes that he could just fix everything. But they were terrified that Demetri would reject them entirely for it. It was a foolish fear really. Nothing had ever caused Demetri to stop being their friend.  
They heard the front door open, and leapt to their feet.  
“Hi Mrs. Moskowitz. Eli in his room?” Demetri asked.  
“Go on up Demetri,” she replied. Eli stood up, running a hand through their hair. As the door swung open, they sprang forward, catching Demetri in a hug.  
“Hey Eli! It’s only been two days since I’ve seen you calm down,” Demetri said hugging back. He gave a gentle squeeze and pulled back. Eli beamed at their best friend. Their heart raced, and tears were forming. Eli hated it. They cried over everything.  
“I just.. Had something I wanted to tell you,” Eli replied softly. They backed up, looking at the floor. Demetri put a hand on their shoulder.  
“What’s up Eli?” They sat down on the end of Eli’s bed. They took in a deep breath and tried to fight back tears.  
“Demetri… I… I’m not a boy. I think.”  
“Okay. So are you… a girl then?” He asked. Eli shook their head.  
“No. I… I don’t think I’m either?” Demetri was silent for what felt like forever. The fight against their own tears was failing. Eli started to cry.  
“I’m a freak. Again. First it’s this,” they gestured at their scar on their lip, “and now…” Demetri immediately sprang into action, wrapping Eli in his arms.  
“No no! That’s not… shit. I’m sorry Eli. I just didn’t know what to say. You know you’re still my best friend no matter what you are right? I don’t care if you’re a boy, a girl, whatever. As long as you’re still Eli, I’ll be here. I promise,” Demetri said. It only made Eli cry harder. They clung to Demetri like their life depended on it and sobbed.  
“I hate it. I feel… so weird.”  
“It’s okay Eli.” They almost believed it. It was the one place that Eli always felt safe; wrapped in Demetri’s arms. But that was something they’d have to confront later. Today wasn’t the right day for that revelation.

2.Soft  
The room was dark, and Eli wasn’t sure what time it was anymore. They had been marathoning the Harry Potter movies with Demetri all day. Somehow, they’d managed to hold themselves together so far. It was hard not to cry when Dumbledore died, but they were strong, they could do it. But maybe not that strong. Dobby got them. They tried to hide their face from Demetri as they started to cry, but Demetri knew. He slid an arm around Eli’s shoulders and said nothing else. Eli turned toward him and cried into his shoulder. Demetri never judged them. Never made fun of them. He was always there to comfort Eli when they cried, no matter how silly the reason. Sometimes Eli wondered what would happen if Demetri wasn’t there anymore. Would they be okay? How would they deal without him? The thought terrified them so much they sobbed harder, but said nothing. Neither did Demetri. He just wrapped them up tighter in his arms and let Eli cry.

3.Lost  
Eli hadn’t actually talked to Demetri in what felt like forever. They had sat at home, suspended from school, for the last week. Their mother had been disappointed, but saw them as a pretty lost cause at this point. They were in a lot of pain. Sure, their shoulder was still a little sore from where Demetri had thrown them into the trophy case, and the scratches from the glass were healing. But what hurt more was knowing Miguel was still fighting for his life, and more selfishly, that Demetri didn’t need them anymore. Not that they felt like Demetri had ever needed them, it was really the reverse. Eli had always needed Demetri. He was the one person who always treated them like a person no matter what was going on. He was the one who relentlessly corrected teachers on pronouns, no matter how many times it got laughed at. He was the one who spoke up for Eli, when their voice was broken. They needed it still. It was hard to speak for yourself after years of having someone else be your voice. And exhausting. By the time Eli got to the end of their day, washed the gel out of their hair, and got into their bed, they were so mentally drained they passed out. But they weren’t going to tell anyone else that. Since they weren’t in school, they hadn’t done their hair all week. It was strange looking in the mirror at their own face. The dye didn’t do enough to distract from the scar. Well, now possibly, scars. They’d taken enough hits to the face that the one on their lip might not be the only one now. Their fingers brushed against the scar, and they held back tears.  
_“What girl would ever kiss this shit?”_ Eli fought back against the memories. Everything hurt. They hated how weak they still were. It didn’t matter how strong they got physically, how many people they hurt, it never made them hurt less. As they crashed back into bed, all they could think about was Demetri. They hated it. Demetri was their biggest weakness. Even trying to replace him with Moon didn’t work. Eli did care about her, possibly even love her, but it started maliciously to hurt Demetri. As they rolled onto their back, Eli felt tears on their face. They told themselves it was the last time. No more crying over Demetri. And the next time they fought, no mercy.

4\. Shatter  
Eli heard Demetri’s arm crack, and with it, their heart was broken into a million pieces. They had done it. It was them hurting Demetri. The one person who had defended them over and over again.  
As they got onto their bike, and put their helmet on, tears were in their eyes. They held them back long enough to drive to somewhere dark, quiet and safe, where no one could see them. Eli threw their helmet at the ground and screamed into the darkness. Their fist smashed into a tree, once, twice, three times. Knuckles bleeding. They collapsed to the ground, sobbing. No matter how hard they tried, they were still crying. It was the thing they had grown to hate the most about themselves. When they had Demetri to comfort them, it was okay, but now, they were alone. And all they could do was hurt and try to hurt others. They regretted hurting Demetri. It was immediate. It had taken everything in them not to break down in front of Tory. The sound of his arm breaking would haunt Eli for a long time. It started to cause them to question what they had become. Why had they gone this far?

5\. Broken

Eli looked in the mirror. They barely recognized themselves anymore. Nothing had changed outwardly, the mohawk was the same, the scar on their face, the way they dressed, but they felt broken. Had they become the very thing they had hated? Eli splashed water on their face, trying to hold back tears. They’d broken Demetri’s arm. Sure, they’d hesitated, but when Tory pushed, they gave in. He’d never forgive Eli for it. They were sure of it, and it hurt. It was the biggest regret they’d ever had.  
_“You’d really hurt me?”_  
_“Eli… it’s me…”_  
It was too late. They had gone too far. Demetri was never going to forgive them for it, and why should he? Eli had done something entirely unforgivable. They lost Demetri. They lost Miguel. They even lost Bert and Mitch. For the first time in a long time, Eli felt alone. At one time they had been upset because Demetri was their only friend, but now, who did they have? Tory? Kylar? Robby? These weren’t their friends. Tory was only around to hurt people. Kylar had been their own bully before. And Robby had been the one who’d injured Miguel. It had felt wrong. What Kreese had taught them felt wrong. It was all a mistake. Eli couldn’t hold it together anymore. Tears started to stream down their face. They’d lost everyone they’d cared about for nothing. But it was too late to turn back now. They had to accept where they had put themselves. It didn’t stop the tears. All they wanted was to go back to a time where they could go to Demetri’s after school and feel safe. They wanted to curl up in his arms and cry until they felt human again. Cobra Kai had turned them into a monster. But there wasn’t another option.  
Eli’s phone rang, breaking them from their thoughts.  
“Hawk. LaRusso’s house. One hour. We’re ending this,” Tory said on the other end.  
“I’ll be there.” Eli threw their phone onto their bed, and took a deep breath. No more tears.

+1. Reunion

As soon as the fight broke out, Demetri went into pure defense mode, trying to help Bert and Nate fight back against the much older and stronger Cobras. He could see Hawk in the corner of his eye, and struck fear into his heart. But now wasn’t the time. He had to protect the people around him. It wasn’t enough. The tides had turned in the Cobra’s favor. Demetri was pinned, one Cobra threatening to break his arm. Miguel was on the losing side of the fight with Kylar.  
“Yo Hawk! Free shot!” Demetri looked into Eli’s eyes. They hesitated, a look that Demetri had never seen across their face. But then they started to move. Demetri braced himself, ready for whatever Hawk had to dish out to him. As the moment of impact approached, Demetri closed his eyes. But the pain never came. Instead, he was released, opening his eyes wide and backing up to the gate. Eli slammed the Cobra into the ground. They approached a cautious Demetri, who was backing up slowly.  
“Look man, I’m sorry. For all of it,” Demetri relaxed a little, “you wanna help me win this?” Demetri smiled.  
“Yeah!” They clasped hands and Eli started to open their mouth but the Cobras had come back up. Eli ducked, Demetri acting fast, sending him flying toward the other Cobra who’d come back up. The pair landed back to back, and fought back. Eli grabbed one, throwing him toward Demetri, who threw out an arm, clotheslining the attacking Cobra. The two moved in sync, attacking together flawlessly, ending in a nod, and combined kick on the last standing Cobra. They continued fighting back to back, helping their friends back to the feet, until the Cobras started to retreat. Eli grabbed Demetri’s hand.  
“Hey Dem… I know I did a lot of… really fucked up shit.” Demetri turned to see Miguel approaching them.  
“Where’s Sam?” he asked.  
“Eli. We’ll talk after we help Sam okay?” Eli nodded and they all hurried out to the dojo just in time to see Sam had won.  
“Tory. Fight’s over,” Eli said.  
“It’s not over. This will never be over LaRusso. You hear me?”  
“You know where to find me.” Tory started to storm out, but stopped to glare at Miguel and Hawk.  
“Traitors,” she looked directly at Hawk, “you better watch your back.”  
“They won’t have to. They have friends watching their back,” Demetri replied. Tory rolled her eyes and left.  
“Sam are you all right?” Miguel asked. She nodded.  
“I’ll be fine.” They went back into the LaRusso house and started tending to the wounds of their friends. Sam decided to take Miguel home, while Mitch and Chris were taking Bert to the E.R.  
“Hey, Demetri… you need a ride home?” Eli asked. Sam stopped in her tracks, Miguel over her shoulder. She looked to Demetri.  
“I’ll be okay Sam. I trust them. Take Miguel home,” Demetri replied. Eli smiled softly. Miguel gave a nudge at Sam.  
“Sam. They’ll be fine.” She looked directly into their eyes.  
“If you do anything to Demetri, I’ll do twice as bad to you. That’s a promise.”  
“I’m not going to hurt him anymore Sam. I… I’m sorry. For everything.” Sam relaxed, gave a nod to Demetri and helped Miguel out of the house. Demetri and Eli followed. It was at this moment that Eli recalled they’d brought the motorcycle instead of their car. The price of looking badass.  
“Um…”  
“It’s fine Eli I can walk…”  
“I mean… I have a spare helmet.” Demetri took in a deep breath.  
“All right.” He took the spare helmet from Eli and put it on. Eli started up their bike, and waited for Demetri to join them. He got on behind them, and tried to figure out where to put his hands. It became very obvious once they started to move and his arms wrapped around Eli’s waist instinctively. Eli smiled to themself as they drove right past Demetri’s house, to the park they’d spent time at as kids. They stopped and pulled off the helmet, fixing their hair.  
“You… missed my house,” Demetri said nervously.  
“I wanted to talk before you went home… if you trust me to. If not I can take you home.” Demetri took in a deep breath.  
“Okay. I’ll listen.”  
“Demetri… I… There’s a lot of things I did wrong. I see that now. I let other people tell me what I should feel, what I should do, and I forgot what was important to me.”  
“Which is?” Eli closed the gap between them and hugged Demetri.  
“You.” They felt Demetri’s arms circle them. It was warm. Comfortable. Everything that they’d missed for so long. Then they felt Demetri shaking. They pulled back slightly to see Demetri crying.  
“Dem?”  
“I missed you so much.” Eli felt tears in their eyes. It hit them like a truck that what had seemed hopeless only hours ago, was now real. They were back. Demetri was here. They’d fought side by side with their best friend and things felt right again. Tears started falling down their face too.  
“I didn’t think you’d forgive me… after everything…”  
“I shouldn’t. I’m crazy to trust you. But I do.” Eli cried harder. It was like all of the things that had happened in the last few months melted away as Demetri pulled them in and cried with them. Eli felt safe again. They were home, and they knew they had to not mess it up again. As they looked into Demetri’s tearstained face, they started to smile, even through the tears. It wasn’t something they’d seen many times. Demetri wasn’t much of a crier.  
“You gonna be okay Dem?” They asked.  
“I think I will be now. You… wanna come spend the night?”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah. I haven’t really been able to get Sam to play Magic with me so… It’d be nice to get some games in. If you’re up for it.” Eli smiled.  
“Of course I am.” Both of them were still cautious, still strained, but they could start to heal, and both of them had to hope things would be okay

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up being less... relationship-y? than I'd planned. Bu I appreciate the comments and I'll try to keep writing as long as I've got ideas!


End file.
